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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

indi ekos align does not recognise index files

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I am running kstars/ekos on a RPi3B+ connected to an HEQ5 Pro and an ASI185 colour camera. The field of view of my camera, attached to a celestron C8 with an f6.3 focal reducer, is approx 13'x10'. I am trying to use the ekos align module offline on my laptop and it consistently fails to solve. I get an error message saying that the index files 4200 to 4204 are missing. The files are actually present in the /usr/share/astrometry directory on my laptop (and on the RPi) and can be read with ghex. They are shown as present when I open the directory via the index files option in the align module. My astrometry.cfg file in /etc shows "add_path usr/share/astrometry" and "autoindex". The "autoindex" fails for files 4200 to 4204 but apparently works for any of 4205 to 4219 it may require. It is not clear to me, given the specified field of view of my camera, whether the 4205 files are required. None of 4206 to 4219 should be. All of my index files are owned by root but all users have read access.

The mount control features using the control panel and the track function from the kstars star map seem to work fine.

I would be grateful for any help in resolving my difficulties.
4 years 11 months ago #37217

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What's your camera FOV? 4200 to 4204 are only required for very small FOVs.
4 years 11 months ago #37218

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My camera field of view is approx 19.6 arcmin by 12.4 arcmin. I'm using a C8 with an f6.3 focal reducer which gives a focal length of 1280mm. The camera chip is 7.3mm by 4.6mm.

(I misquoted the field of view in my original post and gave the smaller field of view for a QHY5LII.)
4 years 11 months ago #37237

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Further information as an aid to diagnosis.

I ran INDI/Ekos with the telescope simulator and the ccd simulator. The ccd simulator has a field of view 133' by 107'. After picking an arbitrary point on the star map (RA 12:26:31 DE 69:41:47)and starting tracking I invoked "Capture & Solve" under the Ekos align tab. This produced an error message saying "index files index-4205 to index-4211 are missing" and the solver failed to work. When I used the ccd simulator (so same field of view)to take an image of the sky and then invoked "Load & Slew" under the Ekos align tab the solver worked fine and slewed the telescope to the appropriate co-ords. When I used "Load & Slew" with an image of the region around M31 I had taken some time ago the solver also worked and the simulated telescope slewed to M31 on the star map. My image was taken with a QHY5Lii on a 130mm focal length telescope and thus had a field of view 128' by 96' - almost the same as the ccd simulator and requiring the same astrometry files for solving.

The problem, therefore, appears to be with the "Capture and Solve" procedure rather than with the use of the astrometry files generally.
4 years 11 months ago #37281

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